11/23/10

I had an interesting moment a couple of mornings ago.  It was early in the morning.  The houses was quite and still. I picked up the TV remote and started channel surfing when I landed on VH-1. One of the videos made me stop and take notice, it was Nickelback’s 'If Today Was Your Last Day'  

The lyrics ask a very strong question: “what would you do if today was your last day?”.   The video story shows two guys planning something like a terrorist attack, then another group planning what looks like a major crime, and a third man at bank with the tellers putting a large amount of cash into a duffle bag.   The chorus of the song keeps echoing that same question, ‘what would you do?’….

Then you find out the man with the cash is not robbing the bank but giving money away to street people. The group that is planning the big crime actually starts giving coats that have messages of hope, love, and peace to random people in a depressed area of the city.  Finally, the two guys that look like terrorist with backpacks, take those backpacks and dump paper messages with happy thoughts over large crowd. As people stop and read the simple messages on the paper they stop, think about things, and change their ways. 

As this video is playing the message hits me, what would I do?   I had to stop and really start thinking about what that means. 

I thought about the honey-do projects that my wife has been after me to get done that I just never seem to get to them.  The study and writing projects I want to tackle.   Then I thought about the broken relationships in life, particularly those with my adult daughters.  My next thoughts were about the times that I have failed to live up the life that God wants for me: the bad decisions, the sinful actions, and the just plain not doing what I know was the right thing to do.  

We have been given a finite amount of time in this world and we need to behave that way.  We need to think about the things we do and how that advances God’s plans and purposes.  After all, everything belongs to God and He allows us to be stewards for his possessions.

But, my thoughts shifted to the good things.  My wife and I have built a wonderful life together. The ups and downs of running our own business that keeps life interesting. But, we share the shear of joy of living life together which is a special gift that we treasure. The joy we get from our dogs. The excitement and wonder I get when I read and study and how my dad was a big part cultivating those skills.  I thought about our friends and things we have been though.  I was thinking that God has been very generous with His blessings. I don’t deserve any of them but marvel and thank Him every day for them all.

But the bottom line is that I am not the person I could be, the person that God wants me to be.   But, if I continue to listen to these teaching moments as they present themselves.  I will be a better person more aligned with God’s purpose and plan for me.